Upcoming Event | Museums as Cultural Intermediaries in the Dialogue Between Civilizations
Date：2023-05-02
Sound Signature: Verspers for the Blessed Virgin by Claudio Monteverdi
The COVID-19 pandemic did not prevent us to erect bridges; on the contrary, it stimulated the quest for renewed connections.
In 2021, it is all online that we have explored how technology is transforming museums. This certainly remains an open question in the age of mobile devices, cyberspace, AI chatbot, and quantum.
Last year, we have focused on the role of museums in the preservation of cultural heritage. We wish here to acknowledge the continuing support of the Antiquities Coalition based in Washington DC, founded by Deborah Lehr and which is under the leadership of Tess Davis.
In the post COVID environment, we have decided to consider museums as cultural intermediaries between civilizations.
The economic dimensions associated with museums are well known. The ecosystem made of art galleries, art fairs, cultural foundations, auction companies, and art museums generates economic value and jobs. In 2022, the global art market was estimated at around 68 billion US dollars. The documentary The Art of Making It reminds us that the relationship between art and finance is not always harmonious.
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao inaugurated in 1997 remains the symbol of the transformation through culture of an entire city. In a sense, and in an American context, the genius of Jean-Michel Basquiat was to metamorphose the streets themselves into galleries. True art is always an elevation.
From the perspective of urban revival, the ambition of Hong Kong of becoming Asia’s art metropolis is another story to follow. At the moment, the West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the world’s largest cultural infrastructure projects.
However, whether in the field of arts, humanities, sciences or technologies, museums create also communities. It is obvious at the local or national level. A nation is being built through education, various narratives but also through its national museums. The Louvre Museum was open to the public during the French Revolution as the Central Museum of the Arts of the Republic. This was clearly a political project.
Beyond, at the global level, museums can be seen as unifying factors in a world which is too often divided. Cultural tourism brings better understanding between cultures. The internationalization of museums facilitates dialogue between civilizations.
By some estimates, there are today in the world around 104 000 museums. This is a highly significant development. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) was established in 1946, and by 1970 the number of museums was around 20 000.
European scholar Krzysztof Pomian, whose trilogy Museum, a World History has just been completed, rightly associates the notions of “museum” and of “world history”. By trying to make sense of the act of collecting, one simply learns about human nature and mankind.
There are certainly links between our capacity to collect – objects, specimens, data – and our power to understand and, therefore, progress. Here, we invite each of us to reflect on the significance of the Global Brain Museum, a digital archive for the history of brain research worldwide.
Beyond the issues of art trafficking or restitutions, please allow us to point at another problem. Indeed, let us not forget that 61% of museums are in Western Europe and North America. More than 33 000 museums are in the US with a museum industry estimated at more than 11 billion US dollars. Only 18% of museums are in Asia-Pacific. And less than 1% in Africa while the continent represents more than 17% of world population.
The China-Europe-America Museums Cooperation Initiative is itself a community made of experts, practitioners, collectors, artists, designers, entrepreneurs, and educators. We are especially honored this year to cooperate with Nankai University in the city of Tianjin. Nankai has been a pioneer in the field of museology and museum studies are essential to the development of museums.
From the start, we have benefited from the support of the China International Communications Group in Beijing, DG2CI, Intesa Sanpaolo, East Langkun, and various media platforms. We owe a lot also to the trust of high personalities like Irina Bokova, former Director-General of UNESCO, Louis Godart, former cultural advisor of three Italian Presidents, or Joan McEntee, former vice secretary of the US Department of Commerce. This is another illustration of the power of partnerships.
Positioned at the intersection of China, the West and the world, we are confident that our community will grow. Our open circle will raise the awareness of the importance of museums, stimulate research on what is a global phenomenon, and it will incubate cooperation and concrete projects.
Together, let us contribute to a more equal geographic development of museums. A fair access to art, to knowledge, and to beauty, is essential to peace, shared prosperity, and global progress.
Museums create more cohesive communities. They can also be paths to fraternity.
